Chapter 8
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MoonGate: Part I
Ancient Moon
Chapter 8
Ancient Moon
Chapter 8
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon created by Naoko Takeuchi and owned by Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. Stargate is property of MGM
Spoilers: Sailor Moon to the end of the Dreams arc in the manga (that means, for those who only know Sailor Moon from the anime, to roughly the sixth episode of Sailor Moon Stars). Stargate mid-to-late 5th Season.
Author note: I'll be drawing the background for Sailor Moon from both manga and (original) Anime. That doesn't mean that I won't draw from other sources (live action series, musical, videogames, Crystal etc.)
A.N. 2: I would appreciate feedback on the story, on how could be improved, or in things that I have gotten wrong.
A.N. 3: I wish to thank Jediknight for his help, including betareading this chapter.
A.N. 4: I'm using <> to denote that the Senshi are speaking in Japanese.
Moon Palace Courtyard
"Where have Venus and Jupiter gone?" Takahashi asked, curious.
"To bring some things. That the Pr... Sailor Moon thinks that whatever happens here, you'll need all the help you can." Pluto said.
Karen was going to ask what she meant when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked there and saw Venus and Jupiter returning. Jupiter was carrying a big, heavy box on her back, while Venus carried two smaller, but still quite big, boxes, one on each shoulder.
"What is…?" Karen started to ask when she saw Moon pointing to something to the East. She looked and saw a Tel'Tak approaching. "Well, it seem our friends are coming."
"It doesn't look like much." Uranus said, looking at the ship with a critical eye, and then she turned to Mason. "And by the design lines, I suppose that it was originally a Goa'uld design."
"How do you know that?" Mason asked, surprised for the insight.
"The pyramid shape was a dead giveaway, given that the most powerful Goa'uld were supposed to be Egyptian Gods." Uranus answered, as the ramp opened and five people stepped out. Four of them clad in military fatigues and the last one in a tan-colored tunic and pants.
She then looked at the two Americans and made a gesture with her hand, inviting them to go to their countrymen. As soon as she was reasonably sure that they couldn't hear what they were saying, she turned to Pluto, but before she could talk, Moon asked the same question she was going to do.
"Why do they look familiar?" she asked "Are they reincarnations?"
Pluto didn't answer immediately, examining them as best as she could.
"It's a long story, but no, they are not reincarnations." She finally said "And it has to do with my bailywick."
"Time travellers, then?" Ami said, who seemed to be looking intently at the blonde woman, who she found strangely familiar.
"Not exactly, I'll explain later." Pluto said with a grimace, thinking back to that particular mess. It hadn't been really their fault, but the damage done to the timeline had been horrendous.
"Another damned coincidence. I'm starting to get a little tired of those." Mars said, rolling her eyes in annoyance "What's next? One of our friends being the Princess of a destroyed planet? Naru's mother being Beryl reborn?."
"Fate seems to be a bit heavy-handed this time." Pluto said with a sigh, "And, somehow, I will get blamed for that."
"Why would anybody think that of you." Saturn asked, confused.
"Senshi of Time, remember? If word from Chibi Moon's future leaks out, I am sure that some people will say that I have a great plan to put it in place." Pluto explained, with more that a hint of bitterness in her voice, "It happened before, back in the Silver Millenium. People don't really understand what my role as Senshi of Time entails."
She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to find a way to explain something that it was not easy to explain without a passing knowledge of temporal mechanics.
"I am... I was the Keeper of the Time Gate. There are other ways of travel through time. But most of them result in closed-time loops or self-correcting paradoxes." Pluto explained, paused for a moment, her thoughts going to the occasions where she had to step in, and then added. "The problem with the Time Gate is that passing through it makes whoever crosses the Gate a fixed part of any future, barring something truly catastrophic, and in that case that would be the least of our worries..."
~~~~~
"What the hell do you think they are talking about?" Jack whispered, as their two missing people started to walk toward them, and a few of the Senshi started to talk.
"About us." Sam answered, "They looked at us before they started."
"You're probably right, but I'd love to know it for sure." He then looked around, "Frankly, why couldn't we have ended up here instead of Antarctica, four years ago? It looks quite nice." Seeing that Carter was about to answer, he quickly added, "It was a rhetorical question, Carter."
Carter rolled her eyes, but kept her mouth shut. Jack was in one of his moods, though, frankly, she couldn't blame him, he was not the only one who had a strong distaste for putting children in the line of fire.
"Does anybody, apart of Daniel, speak Japanese?" Jack asked, that was something that he had been thinking since he heard the report from their two people that only half of the Senshi spoke English.
Teal'c shook his head, and after a moment, Jacob joined him.
"I was stationed in Japan for a few years, but I only remember things like 'Yes', 'No' or 'Where is the bathroom?'" Jacob whispered in answer.
"I do, a bit at least, if only to follow anime." Sam whispered in turn, which prompted an incredulous look from Jack, "I got hooked when we were in Japan, sir."
"Well, Carter, if they talk to each other in Japanese when Daniel is not around try not to show that you are understanding them." Jack ordered, "And try to get some of them to talk about... stuff."
"Stuff, sir?" Sam asked.
"Yes, Carter. " Jack said, "The 'Gates, the head-sucking things, the computers... you know, Ancient stuff."
"Very well, sir." Carter said, while the two women reached their position.
As they reached where the SG-1 was standing, Martha straightened and saluted, while Karen hugged Major Carter, the two women being old friends.
"At ease, Major." Jack said. "Before we debrief you, Doctor Frasier is in the cargo hold with medical equipment to give you a once over. T'ealc will go with you, just in case"
Both women nodded, familiar with the procedure, and walked toward the ship.
~~~~~
Sailor Moon was pacing, clearly impatient, not like the others, except Pluto, stoic as always, were doing much better. Mercury was rechecking some stuff in the computer, Pluto watched as Uranus was twirling the Space Sword, Neptune was using the Mirror to check on something, Jupiter was doing katas, Mars was meditating, and Venus was sitting on a boulder, looking bored
"How much time do we have left to wait?." Venus said, after a yawn.
"I figure that until somebody examines them to see if we have done something to them." Uranus said. "Mercury, you're the doctor's daughter, how much time should it take?"
"Depends, but I would say half an hour." Mercury said, with a shrug "That thing must have a big enough cargo hold for a serious scanner like a MRI or a CAT."
"Yeah, long enough." Moon said stopping in her pacing, having finally reached a decision "Mercury, can you come with me?. Venus, Jupiter, be ready to bring the boxes when I give you a signal."
"Of course, but why isn't Pluto coming?" Mercury asked.
"Because the older guy was glaring at her when he thought that nobody was watching." Moon answered.
"Oh." Mercury said as she started to follow Moon as she walked toward the Americans.
~~~~~
"Twin-tails and the blue-nette are coming toward us." Jack said. "As well, as ribbon and ponytail carrying a few big boxes."
"That would be Moon, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter." Carter said.
"Jack, I don't think that blue-nette is a real word." Daniel said.
"Of course it is real, I just used it, Danny-boy." Jack answered.
Moon and Mercury stopped not too far from them, and Moon whispered something to Mercury, but..
"What's up, people?" said O'Neill, nonchalantly, before Mercury could talk.
"Ah… Sailor Moon wanted to greet you, ah.." Mercury said, stopping for a moment and then adding with a blush, "Sorry, but what's your, ah, rank? I'm not well, ah, versed in military, ah, insignias?."
"I'm Colonel O'Neill, Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force and commanding officer of the SG-1." he said, and pointing to each one of the other in turn, he presented them "My second in command, Major Samantha Carter, a civilian advisor, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c..."
Back there, Venus seemed to react to the name of Daniel, but Mercury didn't notice, as Daniel spoke to Moon and Mercury in that moment in flawless Japanese.
"<I speak Japanese, and I can translate if you have some problem.>" he said
"<Thank you, my English is not that good. Venus speaks it better than me.>" Mercury said with a sigh. She touched a side of her tiara, and a blue visor appeared immediately. "<Moon...?>"
"<I'll take over, Mercury. But don't forget to ask permission.>" Moon said with a smile.
"<Ask permission for what?>" Daniel asked.
"Scanning you." Mercury said in English, touching the visor. "This, ah, visor can work as a scanner."
Daniel looked back to Jack, who shrugged. It was not like they wouldn't do the same if they could.
"Okay." Daniel said.
"Thank you." Mercury said, taking a step back and letting Moon take center stage.
"<I wanted to say that regardless of how these negotiations go, we wish to give you some gifts that could help you in the fight against the Goauld.>" she said, Daniel translating faithfully.
"<The boxes that... Venus and Jupiter?>" Daniel said.
"<Yes. Those boxes, they contain...>" Moon started to say before being interrupted by Mercury
"<Excuse me, are you aware that the man in the back has some kind of parasite wrapped around the spinal column, and that Teal'c has a younger version of the same species of parasite in some kind of abdominal pouch?>" Mercury asked, after she had finished scanning the group.
The tenseness that gripped the Senshi for a moment passed quickly as Daniel smiled, and said to Jack.
"It seems that she has detected Selmak and Junior." He said, prompted a smirk from Jack.
"Yes, we know. I was to mention that just afterwards." Jack said as Selmak took a step forward, thinking , 'Blue-nette is their own mini-Carter, then?'
"Greetings, Sailor Senshi. I'm Selmak, of the Tok'ra." said Selmak, bowing to the group "We are a group of Symbiotes opposed to the Goa'uld. As we find their practice of suppressing the host abhorrent, we only take voluntary hosts, and we time-share with them." he lowered his head and cede control back to Jacob "I'm Jacob Carter, and I suppose that you have detected a marked change in cerebral activity between Selmak and me, kiddo."
"Aaaah..." said Mercury, blushing "Yes, I have. When Selmak was speaking, most of the higher, ah, neurological activity was focused in the pa..., ah, symbiote, while the human brain showed activity only in the areas associated with, ah, speech and movement, and now, well, it's like a normal human brain, a very healthy human brain, though." She said with a shy smile.
'Mini-Carter with a touch of Doc Frasier.' O'Neill thought, who then looked at the girls and frowned, their defensive position were good, quite good, if their objective was to get Moon, 'the princess' if Daniel was right, out of the way, and blast their group if they were a threat. This kind of tactical thinking coming from a bunch of teenagers bothered him more that he wanted to admit.
"So, why are you wearing school uniforms? Did you all follow Sailor Meatball-head example here, or something?" said O'Neill, testing the waters with a jibe.
Mercury quickly translated the words to Moon, who fixed a glare onto him and said something in rapid-fire Japanese. Somehow, he didn't think that it was some friendly banter.
"What did she say?" O'Neill asked to Daniel.
"That only her boyfriend and her best friends can call her that and that you are a mean old man for picking on young girls." Daniel answered, having the satisfaction of hearing Jack splutter.
Before Jack could answer and dig himself further, as he could see from Moon expression, Daniel put a hand on Jack's arm. When he turned, Daniel gave him his 'Jack, you are being a smartass.' look. Jack nodded, stepped back and let him talk. He knew that his problems made him less that ideal in this kind of situation.
"<I hope that you can excuse the Colonel. He tends to get flippant in tense situations.>" the archeologist said, "<And getting minors in the line of fire is a sore point of his.>"
"<Well, I can understand that.>" said Moon, stealing a quick glance to Chibi Moon, a gesture that didn't went unnoticed by Daniel, after Mercury translated his words "<But tell him not to use that nickname again.>"
"<All right.>" said Daniel with a placating texture, and looked at Jack "She says not call to her meatball-head again."
"M'kay" mumbled O'Neill.
"<Now that that is out of the way... Well, I hope that you don't get offended if I find your claim to be Ancients a bit... doubtful.>" Daniel said.
"<Hey, I'm not that old!.>" said Moon, indignantly, incensed for the assumed implication.
"<Sorry, I should have expressed myself better, I didn't meant that you or your friends were old.>" said Daniel, in an apologetic tone "<Pluto said that you were part of the people who built the Stargate... the Astria Porta, whom we call Ancients. But how is that possible?. They lived long before Humankind developed.>"
"<Aahhh.... Weeell... You seee.... It's complicated,....>" she turned to Mercury, "<I don't know how to explain this, without sounding like a total lunatic. I mean, I have lived through it, and sometimes I can barely believe it..>"
Mercury let out a sigh. How could she put it? She didn't think that saying that they were reincarnated royalty would sit well with a team that had been fighting aliens posing as Mythological gods.
"<As Moon said, it's complicated… We were chosen to fight an evil that had been sealed in another dimension since the fall of the… how did you call them, Ancients?>" Mercury said.
"<Yes, we call them Ancients.>" Daniel confirmed, before translating for the SG-1.
"Chosen by whom?" Jack said, looking at Pluto.
"<Not by Pluto, in fact she was the second-to-last to be chosen.>" Mercury said. "<To wield that power we had to physically become Ancients using the last wielders as templates. As such we ended with vague memories of the final days. Except for Pluto, who, for some reason, has crystal clear memories of that period.>"
After translating this, Daniel looked at Jack. He was pursing his lips, but he didn't make any attempt to comment in the situation... now. Probably, he would be doing that later, but... well, the girls had come here with a purpose.
"<We can discuss that at length later.>" Daniel said "<Why don't we go back to what brought you here?>"
"<Thank you.>" Mercury said, with a sigh of relied. "<Moon?>"
"<Yes, the boxes that Venus and Jupiter are going to bring here, contain things that could help you in the fight against the Goa'uld.>" Moon said, and signaled the other two Senshi to come to them.
After leaving the boxes on the ground Venus and Jupiter transformed into civilian guise.
"How did you do that?" Sam asked.
"It comes with the powers." Venus said, with a shrug, speaking English with slight Japanese accent. "I don't know how it works, only that it does. And we thought that we better do this, so you don't feel threatened."
"So, do you speak English, Miss Venus?" Daniel said.
"Yeah, I spent several months in England and I have always been quite good with languages." Venus explained, before starting to fiddle with the locks.
"What do you have there, Blossom?" Jack asked.
"You'll see in a moment, don't be impatient. And I'm more Buttercup than Blossom." She said, just as something clicked in the lock. "Gotcha! Thanks the Gods that it wasn't made in Atlantis, or we would have to blast it open…" she stopped a moment, momentarily confused "And how the Hell do I know that?"
"Did you say Atlantis, as in the mythical city?" asked Daniel, intrigued. There had been some indications in the material they had on the Ancients that Atlantis could have been related to them in some way.
"Yes, but I don't know why I did say that," Venus said, with a thoughtful expression "I mean, I think that Atlantis was the name of a city on Earth back then, but beyond that…" she said, shaking her head.
"What is in the boxes?" Jack said, trying to get back to the matter at hand.
"A few things that you may find useful." Venus answered, producing a silvery bodysuit from inside the box. "This is a skinsuit. Combined with this..." While keeping the bodysuit in one hand, she picked a helmet "... It's basically a lightweight spacesuit." she fell silent as Mercury, who meanwhile had picked something from inside a box, handed it to Jack.
It greatly resembled a computer tablet, and it started as Jack took it, making him almost drop it in surprise. Mercury arched an eyebrow, but didn't say anything
"It's the instruction manual for the skinsuit..." Mercury started to say.
"It's in Ancient." said Daniel, looking over Jack's shoulder, before Jack could make a crack about Moonspeak.
"Sorry, I forgot." Mercury said, blushing, clearly embarrassed for that oversight. "If you wait for a moment…" She said, quickly keying a few commands in her computer, before smiling, "I have uploaded a computer-made translation into the pad. Press that button in the upper right corner three times, and it should change the menu and language to English."
"Did you translate it yourself." Daniel asked, with clear interest.
"Ah, no, I used an automatic translation program." the blue-haired teen said. "But don't worry, it is quite better than Google Translate."
As Jack did as Mercury said, Daniel considered what he had just heard. What Jack had in his hands could be potentially more important than whatever was in the boxes, a Rosetta stone for Ancient. Not to mention the girl being able to do that with a few instructions in that minicomputer.
"Sir, if you will?" Sam said, extending her hand, "I want to see how extensive the manual is. Maybe I can glean some ideas from it."
"Go ahead, Carter." Jack said, handing her the device, before turning to face the girls "That's very interesting, kids, if it works as advertised, but I'm waiting for the big honkin' space guns."
"Well, not that big." Venus said, opening one of the other two boxes, showing several racks of what looked like 50s style scifi rayguns "But they are space guns."
Tel'Tak cargo bay.
"And done!" Frasier said, leaving the quick test for Nishta they had created after the last time on the table, after checking it was negative. "When we get back to the SGC you'll probably be subject to more encompassing tests, but as far as I can determine with all of this equipment, you two are clean."
"Well, thank you, Doctor." Mason said, with a sigh of relief, "I would love to stay and have a chat, but we have to go back to the Colonel for a debriefing."
"Yeah, sorry that." Doctor Takahashi said.
"Actually, I'm going with you." Doctor Frasier said, picking a tablet. "At least until we reach the airlock, I need to check on something. T'ealc?"
Without a word, the Jaffa nodded and followed them, leaving the cargo bay alone, and hence nobody was there when Carter's pendant started to glow faintly.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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